Conventionally, a structure for a front portion of a vehicle is known which has an outside air introducing function for introducing an outside air, as well as a gas-liquid separation function for separating the outside air and the water from each other.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a structure in which an air intake box having both an outside air introduction opening and a water drainage groove is provided on a damper housing, and an empty space is delimited by a plurality of panels combined together at a right end of a cowl panel, so that the outside air is guided from the air intake box via the empty space of the cowl panel to the blower. Further, Patent Document 1 discloses a structure in which an outside air introduction opening is also provided on an upper surface close to the center of the cowl panel, and a duct is provided which communicates between the outside air introduction opening and the empty space, so that the outside air is introduced from the outside air introduction opening via the empty space of the cowl panel to the blower.
FIG. 22 shows a conventional structure for a front portion of a vehicle which has a room space expanded by shifting the position of a front glass frontward up to the above of the damper housing. It is noted that FIG. 22 is a sectional side end view of the conventional structure for the front portion of the vehicle 200.
As shown in FIG. 22, the conventional structure for the front portion of the vehicle 200 includes: a dashboard upper member 240 extending and protruding from the upper end of a dashboard lower member 230 separating an engine room 210 from a passenger room 220; a windshield lower member 260 supporting the lower end of a front glass 250; and a cowl top 280 covering an outside air intake opening 270 formed between the dashboard upper member 240 and the windshield lower member 260. The cowl top 280 is formed with an outside air intake hole 280A, and the windshield lower member 260 is formed with a blower air intake opening 260A connected to a blower which is not shown in the figure.
The outside air is introduced from the outside air intake hole 280A into the cowl top 280, and flows through the outside air intake opening 270 and the blower air intake opening 260A to the blower. On the other hand, water flows from the outside air intake hole 280A to the cowl top 280, and then is separated from the outside air at a space 290 defined by the dashboard upper member 240 and the windshield lower member 260, and is drained to the vehicle outside from a drainage section which is not shown in the figure.